US begins aid flights to Myanmar cyclone victims

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Even as the death toll climbed, Myanmar's authoritarian regime continued to bar nearly all foreigners experienced in managing humanitarian crises from reaching survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

With hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed in the disaster zone, refugees packed into Buddhist monasteries or camped in the open, drinking dirty water contaminated by dead bodies and animal carcasses. Medicine and food were sorely lacking even as supplies bottled up at the main international airport.

Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, was pounded by heavy rain Monday and more downpours were expected throughout the week, further hindering aid deliveries. For many, the rainwater was the only source of clean drinking water.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chided the junta for its "unacceptably slow response" in helping victims of the disaster.

"Unless more aid gets into the country very quickly we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today's crisis," he said. "I therefore call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Myanmar to put its people's lives first."

President Bush told CBS News that the world should be angry and condemn the military government.

"Here they are with a major catastrophe on their hands, and (they) do not allow there to be the full kind of might of a compassionate world to help them," Bush said.

Myanmar's hermetic authoritarian regime made a huge concession Monday by letting the United States the fiercest critic of its human rights record bring in relief following prolonged negotiations.

It appeared to broaden the original agreement for three flights on Monday and Tuesday, with a U.S. Marines spokesman saying the flights would continue Wednesday.

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